See you...

...next year!

We are off to the mountains for a few days, about time this kid of mine got to see some real snow! Hope you all have a great end of year and may 2010 be a fab year for all of us!

Boxing Day (26th)

Daddy-ebi had to work Boxing Day so Ebi-kun and I went down to a friends house and celebrated there, Daddy-ebi's office isn't too far from Mel's house so he drove over after work. There was a lot of drinking, eating and laughter. When we got back I saw a message on facebook saying that my best friend Di was at the hospital (she was due the 22nd and wanted a home birth) so I was obviously worried sick. I had weird dreams and Ebi-kun had a big nose bleed in the night so not much sleep was had but got up the next morning to discover she had given birth to a beautiful little boy. Well done Di and Rob, I can't wait to meet the little fella.

Christmas day

This year there was just the three of us, so Christmas day was a laid back family affair, it is actually a work day for my husband but he always takes the day off. He designs industrial cake mixing machines and the such like so every Christmas eve he gets sent home with a fancy cake. Of course, every year I forget, this year I remembered so we had vanilla pod and pistachio mousse cake and fresh fruit for breakfast!

Then we got down to the business of opening presents, Ebi-kun got 3 more knights to go with the one he already had so now he has two goodies and two baddies. He also got loads of great new books, which should keep him quiet for quite a while
We stopped at lunch for dinner, I have to cook the turkey the day before because I can't fit the turkey and veg in my little oven (little to westerners, most Japanese people think it is massive)
After lunch we started again with the gifts, we didn't have that many but Ebi-kun likes to open a present and thoroughly inspect it before moving onto the next one. This year I had made a big pile of fabric gift bags and a few furoshiki. It was so much quicker wrapping the gifts and the rubbish pile was much smaller this year and of course, the old adage that kids like the wrapping more than the gift still rings true, especially if you can wear the furoshiki as a cape...
He wore it until he opened this one that I had made for him....
And the top present this year? The only one he actually asked for...yep, the hobby horse. One very, very happy little Sir. This is the only decent photo I managed to get of them both, Sir Ebi-kun spent most of the day charging around the house on Spotty, his faithful steed. (I will do a separate post about making him)
I got some lovely pressies too including fancy, adult felt tip pens, pendant and a subscription to Sew Hip :o)

If you are a Flickr friend or family you can see the rest of the Christmas pictures here.

A Christmas Outing

December 23rd is a national holiday in Japan, it is the Emperors birthday, so a few years ago we started a tradition where we get together with friends and have a trip into Tokyo. We go to the Hobgoblin in Shibuya for lunch, there isn't usually anyone else in there that early so it doesn't matter if the kids run amok. We fill our boots with good old English grub and beer/cider before heading off to the Metropolitan kids hall, 10 minutes up the road, it is a 5 floored play centre and all free. The kids enjoyed the clown show last year so we made a point of getting there to watch it again this year. Then the kids ran themselves silly, Ebi-kun LOVES the music room, they have all kinds of instruments for the kids to try, must say that the drum kit is looking a bit battered now. Around 5pm, we all got together and headed down to Shinjuku to see the pretty lights before collapsing on a train home. I always enjoy this day out, it feels like the holiday season has finally started.

A Merry Christmas To You All

and if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a lovely 25th!

ps. I didn't win the Spoonflower competition, I didn't really expect to with all those girlie designs, thank you to all those that voted, I am still hoping the fabric will arrive today so I can make the pants up for Christmas!

Last Chance....

To get your vote in, voting closes today (22nd), so if you haven't voted yet and you are full of Christmas cheer and good will then pop over and vote for my fun, cool and stylish boys pants, the coolest kids pants on the block!

If you get a 'you already voted' message but you haven't, try a different browser.

For those who have voted, thank you again for your support, I promise this is the last voting post!

The Shop

Just wanted to let you know that the shop will be staying open over the holiday season but, I won't be able to mail goods out as quickly as usual. Everything in Japan closes up for new year, we will be back to normal by the 4th.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me this year both by buying my goodies and morally, I really appreciate it. I have made some wonderful friends, some I have even met in person. It had a been a good year and starting the shop off slowly has given me the confidence I needed, when Ebi-kun goes to kindy in April, I feel I will be ready to step up and hopefully make this little business a little bit bigger.

Enomoto Bokocho Ice Candles

Enomoto farm is one our favourite places to visit, they have a few animals to pet, you can watch the cows being milked using a fancy 100% automated machine, there are loads of bikes and trikes for the kids to ride on in the yard and they sell the best ice-cream for miles around. Last year we found out about the ice candles so I made certain that we wouldn't miss it this year. The weather was perfect (and really cold). We did get there a bit early and they were still setting up, so we had a wander down by the river.

They also give out free soup, hot, hot soup, so good. So we went upstairs in the barn to eat, when we came out, it was properly dark and the candles looked great. Next year is the Chinese year of the tiger....
This is a Sea Angel, very cute and there were several other designs including a Santa and a Christmas pud.
They freeze the water in milk cartons and a handful in bowls, they have a big freezer for the ice-cream, I assume sales are down in the winter so they have more space. Some of the candles are coloured, they are very effective. We had a great turn out of playgroup friends too, it is a nice way to get into the Christmas spirit without having to battle the crowds to looks at the lights.
One good thing about celebrating Christmas here is that you don't get bombarded with TV ads, when I go to get my last minute veg and groceries on Christmas eve, I will not have to fight my way around the supermarket, it will be like shopping on any other day and there is not that expectation of a thousand presents under the tree. For most it is a normal school/work day, the kids will get a present (maybe), KFC dinners and strawberry shortcake will be eaten and that is it. Now, the run up to New years, that is a whole different story...

Not much time left to vote, get a wriggle on if you haven't already done so....

My Birthday

I decided rather last minute, that I didn't fancy staying at home for my birthday - mainly because I would end up doing piles of housework, not my idea of fun. So, I invited my neighbour Tammy and along with Ebi-kun, first we stopped off for some lunch then we all went to the Saitama Modern Art Museum in Kita Urawa. It is two minutes walk from the station and in a park, so it is quite a nice place to go with kids.

We didn't pay for the special exhibition, instead just had a look in the main galleries. This was one our our favourites, a little man standing on top of this big mountain, it is even more impressive when you see the painting up close...

They are all individual grains of rice!

There were also a family of Elephants hanging out in the main gallery

Downstairs, there was art being displayed from various high schools around Saitama, I let Ebi-kun loose with the camera so we have a great collection of blurry photos, I did manage to get a couple of shots in. I love this one of the albino peacock, very eye catching.
And we all liked this one, I asked Ebi-kun what was wrong with the picture and he pointed out the penguin with the backpack and then the one flying upside down, and then the one carrying the baby but he didn't once say it was odd because the penguins were flying. When I mentioned it to him, he told me, in no uncertain terms, that penguins can fly, it is just that they do it under water.
After the gallery, we had a play in the park, until we all started to turn blue, then we headed to Starbucks for a nice hot coffee to warm us up before heading home. My hubby managed to get home in time to do the bath and bed thing with Ebi-kun so it was a nice relaxing end to the day.

and just on the off chance that you haven't voted yet, why not pop over now, it will only take you a minute or so!

Rig Watch #2

Uncle Dave is still making his way to the Falklands on the oil rig, I sent him some questions from readers and Ebi-kun.

Ebi-kun asked, is it scary getting on and off the rig?

Yes, it's very scary when we have to change crew by the billy pugh (photo in this post), we usually get on and off by helicopter, like this one.

Is it all guys or are there women who work it too?

Traditionally it was only men , but now we do have women , apart from stewardess, there are geologists, engineers, and mud loggers.

What sort of food do you usually fix?

I cook everything, we have to cater for all types. I do special evenings curry evenings, Turkish, Greek , St Georges Day, Robbie Burns, Chinese, Indian, anything! This time I have done a St Andrews Night (see the photos)
Why do they move the rig from off scotland to Falkands? No more oil? I thought the oil rig were firmly stuck on the sea bead forever....thank you for sharing ...

We are going to the Falklands because they think there is oil there, we are a drilling exploration rig we can sail, we have thrusters which enable us to get into position, but for any distances we need a tug to tow us there. When we are in postion , we get the tugs to put out our anchors, 16 of them, we still move with the sea the drilling pipes stay still. There is still oil in Scotland,and the rest of the UK and gas in the south of England.

Where does the poo go?

The poo goes to what we call a red fox unit where bugs break it down and it get treated and put to the fish to eat mmmmm*

*and people wonder why I don't eat fish!

How many people are there usually on the rig?

We have 120 beds usually around 115 onboard at any one time, its a full hotel service, making beds, cleaning etc.

How long have you been on the rigs and have you ever had a fire or scary experience on the rig?

I've been on the rigs for 20 years we have had some scary moments, fires, nearly tipping over or turing turtle as we call it, I don't get sea sick but I've seen some who do and it's not nice.

Sorry Emma, I couldn't ask him if he had worked with your dad, because I don't know your dads name!

Thank you to Uncle Dave for taking the time out to answer all our questions, the lastest message I got was to say that is was rough weather, gale force 9! brrrr, a sailors life is not for me!

There is still time to cast your vote, if you haven't had chance to yet, come on, help me put the cool boys pants at the top!

Thank you!

For all the birthday wishes, I had a lovely day yesterday, we went to the art museum, I will post pictures later, the camera battery is re-charging as I write.

Uncle Dave has answered the rig questions, so I will put up the next rig-watch post as soon as I get the time, apparently the weather is a bit choppy out there at the moment!

Some people have emailed me to say they are having problem with the voting, getting a 'you already voted' page before they actually voted. I can't actually link to the voting page, you have to go via the Spoonflower blog and the link is in the text UNDER the picture. I asked the staff at Spoonflower about the problem, they said to try a different browser, I'm not sure if it is a specific browser that is causing the problem. Anyway, you have until Tuesday to try again, why not pop over now *cheeky wink*

As I did NOTHING yesterday I am playing catch up today, I will try and get back later, no promises as we are off to see the ice candles this evening then I have a gals night out to go to.

It's my birthday....a favour....and a giveaway....

Yes, it is true, I am one year older and one year closer to the that big 40 EEk! Now, a few weeks back Spoonflower announced that an up-coming contest was to design an item of kids clothing which only used 1 yard of fabric and included sewing instructions, when I saw it, I though great, the push I needed to get some of those hair-brained ideas made into real clothes. For those who don't know, Spoonflower is a company that allows you to upload your designs and print them onto fabric, I have used their services several times and have been very impressed, in fact that is where the Organic Space Cadets get printed.

So, with no further ado, this is my design...

It is for a pair of boys (or tomboy like girls) pants, and we all know how much boys like to keep very important things in their pockets, screwdrivers, pens, bolts, pieces of string, emergency chocolate, all essential items, just ask Macgyver or The A-Team. These pants have all the essentials already in the pockets plus the pocket patches have a walkie-talkie, turbo boost and hyper power controls, seriously, what more could a boy want? They are super easy to make and the instructions are printed on the fabric.

Although I have ordered the fabric, it hasn't arrived yet, but here are the photos of the proto-type pattern, I used denim and some space cadets for the patches on the pockets....
They are so easy to sew, three seams then hem the waist, insert the elastic and hem the legs and you are done! Ebi-kun says they are very comfortable, he doesn't like jeans, he says that they are too hard so I wasn't sure he would want to wear these but he does actually love them
The pattern entered is for age 4-5 years (110cm) but I think I will be able to scale it down for smaller kids. So.......the birthday favour... please vote for me! It is simple, just pop over, via here and click on the cool boys pants (which ever patterns you click on will have a green box around them and remember to click on the final button at the bottom of the list). It isn't hard to miss mine since all the other designs are very much cutesy-pretty-girlie-girlie. Which is fine but boys get such a raw deal. Just think about when you go to a kids clothes store, usually 75% of the store is made up of pretty and cute girls clothes and then there is one corner with the same-ole same-ole boys stuff, think diggers, dino's and camouflage print *yawn* Boys need cool clothes too!

I was feeling pretty good about the design until I saw all the other entries, I was expecting lots of girlie designs but I didn't expect to be the only boys design, I would like there to be more cool things for boys but I suddenly felt disheartened and having serious second thoughts - what was I thinking? It is too late now for me too pull out!

So, please, (I am not below begging) vote for me! and IF I win, I will pick a random winner and make them a pair of the pants or something more suitable if they don't have kids or whatever. When you vote, let me know, one way or the other, leaving a comment here, twitter DM, a FB message, email (jojoebi.designs at gmail dot com), carrier pigeon etc. and I will put your name in the hat. To up the chance of their being a giveaway, get all your friends, family, neighbours and any random people you might bump into to vote too.

Does this sound like a plea of a desperate woman? I don't care, I have more things to worry about, like turning 40 next year! Is that a grey hair......?

Let it snow, let is snow, let is snow....

We cut out lots of origami snowflakes for one of the advent activities then decided to make it snow in the genkan. Daddy-ebi had a bit of a shock when he came home :o)

Our new favourite book

I spotted this in the book store the other day, and you know how I am a sucker for a book with beautiful illustrations. It is a puzzle book and also a gallery!

Each page is designed by a different artist and the styles of the pictures are completely different. Each double page had a picture printed twice BUT there are 7 small differences on each page.

This is Ebi-kuns favourite page but it is also the most difficult, we still haven't found all the differences on this page!
All the illustrations are based on Christmas, it really is a very cute book and Ebi-kun has spent several hours already studying it. I think it will be a perfect book to put away after Chritsmas, ready to do it all again next year.
The book depository doesn't stock it but here is the ISBN in case you want to track a copy down 978-4-426-80591-3 and it is called Christmas Gallery.

One sniff and you're snuffed

Yesterday I made up some new work using herbs and spices. I took 8 little bottles and covered them in packing tape so that you can't see inside. Then I put a selection of herbs and spices in them, a different one in each bottle.

Whilst Ebi-kun was working on snowflake punching I made up some cards to go with the bottles.

For the presentation, I asked him to lay out the plant cards with the names and read what each plant is. Then he took a bottle, sniffed the contents then tried to match it with the picture card.

When he had matched them all he checked his answers by turning the card and the bottle over, I had written numbers on both, he got half of them right the first time, so he tried again with the ones he got wrong.
Once he had matched them up, he took the picture cards (no written label) of the dried herbs and spices and tried to match it to the plant, this was quite difficult. The final control of error was to match the dried pictures with the labels to the cards that were already down.
Ebi-kun was really focused when we were doing this work, which surprised me. Although he has had the smelling bottles on the shelf, he is never that interested and when he does it, he never manages to get them all right. I would like to do a follow up which involves tasting, I haven't decided how to go about doing that yet.

If you would like a set of the cards, they are for download here on Flickr. They are free but please do not distribute them or sell them in any way. If you link to them, please let me know. Thanks.

I only used 8 spices/herbs as I thought that would be more than enough to handle in one go and I just used what I had in my cupboard but you could easily expand on this.

Phonics miniatures

One of our favourite pieces of Montessori equipment are the phonics pouches and over the last couple of years we have collected lots and lots of mini things to put in them. I decided to empty all the pouches, just look at the booty!

I then went through all the things we had and put them into spelling families, oo objects, long a, ae, ph words etc. and a pile with words that are totally phonic. I gave Ebi-kun the phonic pile and asked him to pick out five things, then got him to spell the words and draw a picture of each one.
He really enjoyed doing it. My plan is to have do similar exercises but using the different spelling rules, I also have a pile of games and things in my teaching box, I will have to dig it out of the back of the pantry.

Salt Dough Ornaments

One of the advent activities we have had was to make salt dough ornaments and this year were the most successful ones yet. This is the recipe I used:

2c plain flour

1/2c salt

1/2 - 3/4 c hot water

basically mix all together to make a dough. This made quite a lot so we just used half. Wrap any that you are not using in cling film to stop it drying out. I picked up some tips this year from reading different blogs but now I can't remember where I read what, so a general thank you to everyone who has made these ornaments and blogged about it.

This year we tried rolling the dough on grease proof paper, I had to hold it as he rolled because it slipped about otherwise. This meant though that we could roll the dough quite thin. We cut them out and removed the excess from around the shape. We also cut designs into the main shape using my bento cutters.

I then slid the grease proof paper onto a plate and microwaved the shapes, it took about 5 minutes on 600W for about 8 shapes, I did leave one lot in too long and burnt a couple, so keep an eye on them. I also turned them over half way through. As I took the first lot out to cool, Ebi-kun set to work on the second batch.

We coloured them using felt tip pens, which I found worked better than paints, last year some of the ornaments went soggy when we painted them. Then I varnished them all with a clear varnish, we left them to dry over night.
The next day he went to town with the glitter glue and once they were dry we threaded ribbon through and hung them on the tree.

Playgroup Christmas party

Yesterday was our bilingual kids playgroup party, we had 10 families attend, sadly a couple of families called in sick and had to miss the fun. We did some colouring, origami, played games and had a visit from Santa. We don't have a group leader as such, everyone chips in, so everyone bought a game or activity to do, although we ran out of time!

We make the dads do janken (rock, paper, scissors) and the winner gets to be Santa, this year Hiroki won the job, he was really funny and this is actually his youngest daughter, who wasn't convinced about it all at all. For the presents each parent brings a gift, wrapped and labelled for their child, we have found this system works the best.
We moved to the room next door for the lunch, it was pot luck and we had a great spread, there were only about 15 kids but it felt like 50! The three hours seemed to fly by, I think everyone had a good time and we al went home exhausted :o)
I also finished the secret project (hobby horse) at the weekend, he is SO cool. I haven't taken pictures yet because I don't want a certain someone spotting them, I am more than happy with the result!

and now for something completely different!

My uncle Dave is a head chef, not so exciting, but he is the head chef on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean! Now, that is more exciting. He is usually based off the coast of Scotland, somewhere in the North Sea but at the moment he is on a big adventure. They are moving the rig all the way to the Falklands, a trip that is supposed to take 5 weeks, but considering they have been stuck on the English Channel for a week, I think it may take a bit longer. He also sent me a link to Marine Traffic, where you can track ships around the world, it is pretty cool. I haven't linked to his rig, I'm not sure if that is allowed.

He has been sending me pictures, when he (and my aunt and cousins) came to stay I was asking 101 questions about life on the rig, ever wondered how they get on and off? They use this scary looking device.
Usually, they fly on and off by helicopter, the training they have to do sounds terrifying, escaping from a capsized helicopter, in freezing water does not sound like a barrel of laughs to me.
It does look quite pretty at night, Uncle Dave usually works three weeks on, three weeks off I think, but this is going to be a much longer trip, of course, he will be missing Christmas but I think the family have got used to this.
Ebi-kun wants to know if it is scary when you get on and off the rig? Do you have any questions I can put to uncle Dave about living and working on the rig?

Advent activities

I noticed some people in blogland are super organised and have an activity set up already for each day, I tried this last year and it flopped, so this year I decide the night before what we are going to do. This works better for us because I can take into account the weather, playdates, errands that have to be run etc.

One of the activities so far was to make snowflakes, we cut some out of paper and we also used the packing peanuts that came in a parcel to make some, if you wet them they dissolve a bit and you can stick them together. We also attempted to make an igloo.

Another day he wrote a letter to Santa, he also addressed the envelope and he took it to the post office and bought his stamp, the clerk was looking a bit sceptical (back home the clerk would have played along, but this woman was obviously clueless in the etiquette of sending Santa a letter!). We have also made (and eaten) mince pies, put up the decorations, made an angel and we are half way through the salt dough decorations.
Yesterday, Ebi-kun decided to do some bone work to, he is still very much into the body and bones etc. Here he is writing the names of the bones.
Then we made a moveable skeleton, printed out from here.

Last night I entered the latest Spoonflower competition, to design a piece of children's clothing that can be printed on 1 yard of fabric. This is the first of Spoonflower's competitions that I really wanted to enter but with it being right before Christmas it was a toughie to get finished. Sadly, there is no way to get the pants I designed printed and made up in time for when they put up the entries, I will let you know when they do (because I will be begging for votes LOL )

and have you entered the giveaway yet?